Ethical Absolutism Pros And Cons, Articles E

For example in . We have this recent historical story where we overcome the evil of the Nazis in WWII and we use that story to erase stories prior to that where our society was guilty of genocide. Incredible article. Someone can always do your job a little better or faster or cheaper than you can. With regard to his alleged Antisemitism, it is also important to remember that the heads of the Company during the Disney Renaissance were mostly Jewish. ." Against this conflicting backdrop of contented normalcy and dark fears, new forms of popular culture flowered. A more conservative studio like the Walt Disney Company focused on the loss of individual freedoms in Nazi Germany in their wartime cartoons. Noncomformiy is the failure to conform or to follow certain customs or beliefs. This would have been considered a leftist call for nonconformity against the pervading culture of racism in America and Nazi Germany, and the thugs who perpetrate hate crimes. However, these members will participate in mob mentality all which is reflective of conformity. This is a pretty illuminating piece. Another way non-conformity is shown in today's pop culture is motivational music. I appreciate the broad span of history you cover as well as the subtle connections you pick up on between Nazism and pop culture portrayals. In Reason and Emotion (1942) the studio shows audiences how Nazi ideology uses emotions to create mob-rule and those who use reason to question this ideology are put in concentration camps. What is more simple than that? Lucas broke Star Wars by changing the Force from a power achieved through self-mastery, into a genetically conferred superiority complex. You can really see this myth at work in other works of American pop culture in the terrible film The Patriot, in the much better though ideologically muddled TV series Sleepy Hollow, in the many Hollywood films where British actors play straw-men villains while out-acting their American counterparts (e.g. This fear is mostly embodied by an idea that somehow, the overlords will return and we will go back to the dark days. They saw themselves, just as the Confederacy did, as successors of George Washington and the American Revolution. Movies and books like Boys from Brazil, Odessa File, Marathon Man, The Night Porter, The Eagle Has Landed, tv shows like Secret Army, Colditz Im not sure what all this meant, apart from the fact there was a significant public appetite for this entertainment.. Al-Razi was a Renaissance man of the Islamic Golden Age who lived from 854 until 925 CE. This 1989 Studio Ghibli animated movie about a young witch learning to live on her own is beautiful: the Miyazaki hand-painted . ), Jeffrey Katzenberg (head of film division), Peter Schneider (head of animation, Alan Menken (composer), and Howard Ashman (producer and lyricist) are Jewish. How much of this emphasis that I took was due to my age when I was first exposed to those stories? Tyler wears what he wants, no matter how weird it seems to other people or how much he gets criticized for it. In his conclusion, Sunstein again concedes that conformity can sometimes benefit society. Nonconformity is an American value embraced by both sides of the political and/or cultural spectrum. Disney is not the only company which, like the Warner Brothers during WWII used the Nazis as an example of extreme intolerance which should be avoided. I thought it was quite an interesting article. Richard M. Nixon was his name. No surprise that the folks who run Hollywood are keen on Nazi imagery. TWENTY years after John F. Kennedy was assassinated, a public opinion poll indicated that he was rated best overall of, 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1945 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1944 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1944 Nobel Prize in Literature Broadcast Presentation, 1951 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature Announcement, 1959 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech, 1961 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech. Transcendentalism in Pop Culture by McKenna Davis - Prezi "The job is what you do when you are told what to do. That sound takes her straight back to 1941 and she becomes a scared 10 year old girl, cowering under a table under the stairs and then being dug out of the rubble of her home by neighbours. Thats the whole thing about peer pressure, really, and the desire to conform to society and to the wider culture as a whole. These principles which Americans hold near and dear, and have been used to justify every civil rights movement, have also trickled down into everything from government policy to cultural mannerisms which foreigners might find arrogant. Not to mention how those films (and Lucas films in general) have always tried to express american values. I would like to dive into two pools. It is basically doing your own thing and not worrying about what the popular thing is to do. The ability to conform to norms when you intend to conform is a talent and skill that can be refined with experience and effort. Bear Grylls has a show called man vs wild were he goes on adventures and survives on his own. Learn about another American music pioneer, Thelonious Monk, by visitingMonk At 100. V for Vendetta was originally written as a critique of Margaret Thatcher and the film has removed a lot of the British nuances and was used as a metaphor for the Bush administration. What Are Examples of a Non-Conformist? - Reference.com Kanye West is a hip hop artist who has gotten much attention over the last few years because he is so openly self confident and believes that he can create and do anything that he sets his mind to and that is how he shows the Transcendental tenant of self-reliance. The soulful, sultry voice of Billie Holiday still cascades from speakers around the globe. The individual is erased as the Stromtroopers stand in perfect formations to the sound of marching music, reminiscent of the Third Reich. Simple posts on twitter with tumblr photos of camping and adventure get thousands of retweets and favorites a day. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Finally, in Education for Death (1943) the studio takes its audience through the life of a Nazi child named Hans as he is controlled from birth to be a robot-minded drone for the Nazi Party. And I can't be controlled. The aesthetics of the farm are similar to a prisoner of war camp or concentration camp. School districts raced to build schools for the baby-boom students who were heading their way. Transcendentalism | Teen Ink No, it WAS the most important event in the 20th century. First, reanimation of marginalization; we see this take place in many forms and throughout many generations and cultures. The Force has always been at least implied to be hereditary. Mufasa. After the tumult of the 1930s and 1940swith their sustained economic depression (192941) and world war (193945)the 1950s did seem quiet. The Cold War had its dark side as well. Self-reliance helps people do things for themselves tying in with confidence. I wonder how much of our obsession with the Nazis comes from the simple fact that the immediate post-war period saw the spread of accessible media, particularly the television. Their film Pinocchio preached nonconformity in some ways too, in the end, nonconformity doesnt always equal anti-Nazism. He is forced at the end of a bayonet to read Mein Kampf. This connects to transcendentalism because it shows self reliance. The different examples you brought in really support the article. This was true even in the 1970s when George Lucas first made his films, and Lucas uses WWII aesthetics to communicate his negative thoughts on the direction of his contemporary America. Even though many felt they were breaking the mold and doing the non-conformity thing by becoming Communist, it was the conformity to fear of Communist overlords and rules that caused much of the destruction echoing still from the 20th century. However, the Second World War was the largest and most traumatic event of the 20th Century for much of the world including America. Dont get me wrong, I think your article is well written and I find the Nazi trope in fiction very interesting, but I disagree with the message of conformity. You can really see this myth at work in other works of American pop culture in the terrible film The Patriot, in the much better though ideologically muddled TV series Sleepy Hollow, in the many Hollywood films where British actors play straw-men villains while out-acting their American counterparts (e.g. The Warners film Black Legion (1937) featured home-grown fascists and associated them with both the Nazis and the American Ku Klux Klan. The 1950s are most often remembered as a quiet decade, a decade of conformity, stability, and normalcy. Here, Curie was able to continue the foundations of her education. ." Television came into its own in the 1950s. The quote "and I get high on you and me" shares a lot I think. Id be interested in knowing what parts you thing dont hold water. We are always going to be behind a hero who defeats who we regard as the worst people ever. Non-conformity ties in with free thought and lets people be who they are. failure or refusal to conform to a prevailing rule or practice. I find it interesting how the media portrays the villains in ways similar to the Nazi aesthetic, thus presenting to the audience that they should be against such movements in real life. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. However, even reading into the Star Wars universe separate from Disney, we can begin to see difficulties with this narrative. The New York Yankees' decade-long dominance of professional baseball was the big story, followed closely by the increasing integration (blacks were no longer banned) in baseball and other sports. He was told he was crazy for thinking things like the 'ipod' or 'ipad' could actually exist or even work. 1940) Smithsonian National Museum of African American . "Hanging out with you while you hanging hanging on my arm and I like it" "This love is the best love that can ever be and I get high on you and me." After all, the title of the series is not Star Diplomacy, but Star Wars. Learn to not take offence from Kanye's open belief that he is better than everyone else, learn from it, see his success and realize that maybe being self-reliant and believing you can accomplish all things if you work for it is the way to live your life. It encouraged Americans to improve the quality of education, because most Americans believed that their children needed to be better educated to compete against the Soviet menace. American government and industry invested heavily in science and technology, in part because Americans believed that one way to win the Cold War was to develop more powerful bombs and more sophisticated technology. Insightful analysis of American values and of Star Wars. Noncomformity shown through Disney. Given Disneys anti-Nazi history, it is not surprising that these themes would make their way into modern Disney films. Rinzler,J.W.. The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. New York: Del Rey Publishing. As Ive highlighted in my article onX-Men and the Holocaust, Americans were widely unaware of the full extent of Nazi atrocities until much later in the twentieth century. They seem to epitomise everything bad. German accents, one liners (like Ve have vays of making you talk), senseless violence, or dismissal as being simply insane are some of the ways in which these villains are portrayed. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"Aj6DzxECF_9gKHy0syAwpg6xMRYsIjUO6JmlYsxa_Z4-86400-0"}; He subverted the senate and finally took over and became an imperial guy and he was really evil. Nazism had a cultural momentin the 70s. Transcendentalism Pop Culture Project - Adobe Spark Other than cowboy films and their portrayal of the Native American, what other bogeyman has been so extensively covered? I am reminded of Calvin (of Calvin & Hobbes), when he discovered that mainstream commercial nihilism cant be trusted. Non-Conformity - transcendentalism Portraying Nazis or Nazi-like characters as mindless, though, has a deeper meaning which is tied to conformity: the idea that conformists do not think for themselves. In an interview with New York Times he once said "I am so credible, so relevant, and so influential, that I will change things." Most of the American, African, Caribbean, British and various indigenous people have zombies that are unhurried and move with the masses. These books, adaptedby Warner Brothers Studio, follow in a long tradition of creating totalitarian villains, but this case is special because it explicitly deals with a man who calls for genocide against several groups. 1950s: Pop Culture Explodes in a Decade of Conformity, Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-Century America. This idea was applied to the Protestant Reformation as well when Reformed Christian denominations such as Presbyterians, Methodists, Puritans, and Baptists separated from the Church of England (believed to be too culturally Catholic) in the 16th Century; some groups eventually moving to the American continent to practice their non-conformity. But ultimately, he comes down on the side of arguing that we could use a little less conformity. Holiday cut her first record in 1933 when she was just 18, and was touring with Count Basie just a few years later. They are not the zombies of TWD or Shaun of the Dead. Thus, the purpose of this article is not to argue that Star Wars is about WWII, but to define core American values, the way in which WWII re-defined them, and the way in which pieces of popular culture like Star Wars use the lessons, themes, aesthetics, and/or figures from WWII to make contemporary statements on the dangers of conformity. Now we have far right groups in Ukraine who participated in the shootings on Maidan, have had ministerial roles in the interim government and who are fighting in Donbass, using the same battalion names used by the grandparents, fighting for the Nazis in WWII. Get over it? Really? Overall I think that this article touches on an interesting strain of Western thought, but Ill still think of the new movies as a curse from the Dark Side. I particularly enjoy any opportunity to work on projects where tech skills intersect with pop culture, human behavior, and social good. Pop culture is the shared culture of the masses. Nonconformity - Transcendentalism - Weebly The definition of nonconformity is when an individual deliberately acts in ways that are oppositional to accepted social norms. President instead of Your Excellency, for example, and can even be on a first name basis with bosses. With the fear of overlords and movement towards non-conformity, Id like to touch on the point of Communism. Villains in other films are based upon the Nazis such as the Imperial Empire in Starwars. When Rey desperately holds out Lukes lightsaber to an older, sadder, tired Luke, she is speaking on behalf of the younger generation saying We still need you. We need your courage, your optimism, your uniqueness, and even your recklessness. Billie Holiday. Watch the video below to learn about his life, work, and legacy. The main stream media and Hollywood are obsessed with what happened in Germany a long time ago. What are some of the common attributes of Nazi or Nazi-like characters in American popular culture? The dictator Adam Sutler in the graphic novel V for Vendetta is a good example as are other overlords from other dystopian futuristic fiction such as President Snow from The Hunger Games. Nice job! Im thinking of the attempt to conquer Canada in the War of 1812, the Civil War, the conquest of the West during the Indian Wars of the 19th century, the presence of slavery in the US as late as 1865 even though the supposedly Evil (British) Empire outlawed the slave trade in 1817, etc. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/culture-magazines/1950s-pop-culture-explodes-decade-conformity, "1950s: Pop Culture Explodes in a Decade of Conformity Great article, not sure if it all holds water or not but well reasoned. Especially in films. Examples Of Nonconformity. Noncomformity shown through Disney | Transcendentalism: Through the "1950s: Pop Culture Explodes in a Decade of Conformity When Katniss went to her first hunger games she defied the capital by almost making it so that they didn't have a winner because her and Petta were going to kill themsleves so that they didn't have to live without eachother when the entire point of the hunger games is to have a winner and keep everyone in line. Im thinking of the attempt to conquer Canada in the War of 1812, the Civil War, the conquest of the West during the Indian Wars of the 19th century, the presence of slavery in the US as late as 1865 even though the supposedly Evil (British) Empire outlawed the slave trade in 1817, etc. V for Vendetta does this, but so does The Lion King,which traces Scars rise to power through the exploitation of the hyenas hunger. As her popularity grew, though, so did the adversity. Quotes tagged as "nonconformity" Showing 1-30 of 102. A zombie; a reanimated corpse appears to be a global phenomena. Popular culture emerges through the modern shared experiences of large groups and is also produced at industrial scale by firms. Throughout the twentieth century, this conservative nonconformity principle was often applied to morality and the idea that popular morality (as opposed to Christian morality) was sinful and that the faithful must have the courage to practice things like chastity in the face of changing times from the 1960s to MTV culture. WWII was a world war, meaning that it affected most of the world. Billie Holiday Singing the Blues (1947) by Jay RobinsonGeorgia Museum of Art. Since Walt founded the company, Mickey has been battling authoritarian, power hungry, or mindless villains in his cartoon shorts. Some of those more personally affected are still alive today. Warner Brothers was a studio which condemned fascism even before America entered the war. One of the biggest points and guidlines to transcendentalism is nonconformity. This proves the emotional effectiveness of using the Nazi imagery in a film to encourage resistance. An excellent piece, certainly one of the finest pieces Ive read in this publication for some considerable time.